The Tin Mill Tipe, Natural Titanium Pen review

If you love notebooks and journals as much as I do, it’s probably not a stretch to say that you also love pens. Finding the perfect pen for the perfect journal is a quest that can take a long time to complete. I have a favorite pen, but I’m not sure it’s my perfect pen, so I am constantly looking for my next favorite. The latest pen I’ve been testing is The Tin Mill Tipe, Natural Titanium Pen. It has a lot of good things going for it, but is it my new favorite? Let’s find out.

The Tipe (odd name right?) is made of Solid Grade 2 Titanium and is available in natural like you see here, as well as a black anodized version. The natural version has a bead blasted matte finish that gives the pen a smooth feel. The pen is 6.04″ long and has a diameter of .37″. Look closely at the image above. The pen is only slightly longer than a generic Bic pen. But notice the barrel of the Tipe. See how it’s narrow towards the cap and gets wider at the bottom? The design makes it both comfortable to hold and well balanced.

The Tipe was designed around the Pilot G2 refill and comes with a Pilot G2 Gel, Fine Point refill pre-installed in the  pen. The pen can also use other refills like:

• Caran d’Ache Rollerball Refill
• Lamy M16 Ballpoint Pen Refill
• Waterman Rollerball Refill
• Mont Blanc Rollerball Refill
• Kaweco “soul” refill G2
• Visconti Rollerball Refill

To change refills, you just unscrew the end near the pen tip. Just be careful not to lose the spring and the two transfer pins that go in the cap.

The most unique thing about the Tipe is the retract and protract mechanism. The cap, which isn’t removable, features a pocket clip and has two channels that spiral around the cap. Twisting the cap in one direction extends the writing tip and turning it the opposite direction retracts the tip back into the barrel. It reminds me a little bit of bolt action style pens like the Maxmadco Bolt Action retractable pen and the Karas Kustoms The Bolt pen.

Turning the cap can be done with one hand, but it feels awkward and isn’t very easy to do since there is considerable friction on the two tiny hex screws in the grooves. I should also mention that when the pen is retracted, the cap rattles quite a bit, which is annoying. But when the pen is extended it does not rattle at all.

The fact that the Tipe has a Pilot G2 refill automatically makes me like this pen because that’s my favorite refill and I like the way it writes. I also like the size, balance and weight of the Tipe. But the rattling cap is a buzz kill for me. It makes an otherwise cool pen feel a little cheap.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by The Tin Mill. Please visit their site for more info.